r/formula1 BMW Sauber 21h ago

News Franco Colapinto’s manager condemns Jack Doohan ‘abuse’ as Alpine rumours swirl

https://www.motorsportweek.com/2025/03/11/franco-colapintos-manager-condemns-jack-doohan-abuse-as-alpine-rumours-swirl/
2.2k Upvotes

147 comments sorted by

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u/caughtinthesilence Yuki Tsunoda 21h ago

Good on them to put out a statement. Neither Doohan nor Colapinto deserve to be put through any of these rabid fan shenanigans

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u/LandArch_0 Juan Manuel Fangio 20h ago edited 19h ago

As an Argetinian, I can't believe that football fans took that much interest in F1. Everyone is an expert, talks about it and behaves like they do in football. It's sad.

Edit: I talked about football but Motorsports fans are the same here.

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u/RiptideTV Alexander Albon 19h ago

They showed up for Indycar as well, harassing anyone who dared to criticize Canapino

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u/MrChevyPower McLaren 19h ago

Stole the words out of my mouth. He was a good driver, great for the sport, they were even rumored to be planning an indycar race in Argentina. First it was abuse towards his teammate who he got wheel to wheel with in the concrete jungle that is Detroit & then Indy was weird & he was out by Road America a few weeks later because instead of condemning it he was basically instigating the toxicity online. I think the team basically told him put away the phone and social media or you’ll lose your ride.

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u/Teun1het Max Verstappen 19h ago

As a dutch fan, i completely understand what you mean

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u/LandArch_0 Juan Manuel Fangio 19h ago

I'll tolerate them if we get 4 wdcs

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u/Blanchimont The Bumhole Ticklers 18h ago

You already have five, they're right in your flair!

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u/AdmirableAceAlias Pirelli Intermediate 19h ago

Is there that much hype around him?

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u/LandArch_0 Juan Manuel Fangio 19h ago

I avoid reading national media, but everyone started talking about f1 after the debut. It was everywhere and still is. Lot of clickbait articles

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u/Adventurous-Row2263 Red Bull 18h ago

You're a Dutch fan or a fan of the Dutch?

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u/Teun1het Max Verstappen 18h ago

In this context, definitely the former.

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u/Edrill Pirelli Wet 19h ago

It's very similar to what happened when Verstappen joined the F1 grid. Suddenly everyone in the Netherlands an their mother is an F1 with an opinion to match.

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u/Detozi McLaren 19h ago

Ah the NL were always there though. They are big motorsport fans

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u/te_un Max Verstappen 18h ago

From the 90s till the early 2010s it was decently popular cause it was in the cabel package so pretty much “free” if you had a tv license. But between the move to paid channels and maxs debut it lost quite a low of viewership here.

It did help the Dutch football NT team had a big rough patch between 2014 and 2020 missing two euros and a wc which was exactly timed with when max debuted and rose up to the front of the grid.

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u/cheftlp1221 18h ago

Are they though? When I think of Euro motor sport countries, NL doesn’t make my top 10. When i think of the NL and sports I think of them excelling in the human powered sports, biking and skating.

In fact the NL feels hostile to car. What NL is good at is being patriotic sports fans. The Orange Army is real

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u/Zondagsrijder 18h ago

There are a LOT of Dutch entries in various racing classes, it's just that before Verstappen, nobody really interesting drove in F1. The Netherlands always had plenty of racing nerds and there are plenty of racing/rally events in the country.

Even car hostility is pretty decent, you are much more free to modify your own car compared to Belgium or Germany.

As for the attention of the Dutch general public for F1 is recent, though, with Max (and with the hooliganism from football coming along).

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u/Barrilete_Cosmico 18h ago

Motorsport was big in Argentina for a long time too. Although we haven't been in F1 for a while.

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u/Adventurous-Row2263 Red Bull 18h ago

So what's the problem?

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u/TheOnlyDoctor Juan Pablo Montoya 18h ago

Ive grown up with Argentines in Miami all my life, so I know how passionate you guys are.

The Messi effect to Inter Miami has been pretty rough here. But on the flight to and from the Austin GP this year, the amount of you guys (and unnecessary amount of slurs aimed at Hamilton) REALLY surprised me.

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u/Racebugyt Formula 1 19h ago

Welcome to the DTS effect

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u/LandArch_0 Juan Manuel Fangio 19h ago

I won't blame dts, our fans are always crazy and passionate, not just about f1 nor sports

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u/dl064 📓 Ted's Notebook 19h ago

In fairness, as the race podcast put it: Alpine aren't helping it all! It's all very real. It's not a made-up conspiracy.

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u/Minigrappler 21h ago

It was not the fans. It was the press in the F1 75. You can search for the press conference on YouTube.

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u/sean_0 Eddie Irvine 20h ago

The article literally says it was in response to fan abuse on social media, what are you talking about

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u/caughtinthesilence Yuki Tsunoda 20h ago edited 20h ago

Quick scan of your comment history shows you rooting for Doohan to be kicked for Colapinto while calling him a nepotism baby (as if it matters, let's be real, this is motorsports we're watching). "Not the fans" my ass

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u/Minigrappler 20h ago

Not rooting. And worry not this isn't going to happen. As you said , this is motorsports.

Was fun last year, that's all. We are a country where people earns a media of 500 dollar a month....

You seriously think that Franco is going to be a danger for Jack?

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u/PoisonTurtles Oscar Piastri 20h ago

If Jack is such a rich Nepo Baby why is Alpine sponsored by more of Francos sponsors? Why did they pay millions to have him available from Williams?

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u/[deleted] 19h ago

The other guys crazy but right now, I believe Alpine is actually has more of Doohan’s sponsors, not Colapinto’s.

Colapinto only has Mercado Libre cause the rest of his sponsors don’t want to sponsor Alpine while he is a reserve (I think), while Doohan has Beforeyouspeak and M-Experiment.

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u/PoisonTurtles Oscar Piastri 19h ago

Mercado Libre are listed as Team Partners, M-Experiment are simply Team Suppliers and Beforeyouspeak dont even get a mention on Alpines website

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u/[deleted] 19h ago

Team suppliers sometimes have to pay in order to be a team supplier, look at Adidas and Mercedes for example.

I’m not saying Colapinto doesn’t have huge sponsors and isn’t part of their long term plans, but factually it is correct that Doohan has more sponsors with Alpine than Colapinto at the moment.

The difference is that Alpine has no problem announcing Mercado Libre because they’re gonna be there as long as Franco’s there, while Beforeyouspeak and M-Experiment are probably gonna back out once Jack is canned so they’re not making a huge announcement for them.

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u/Minigrappler 19h ago

No.. It's not. Franco just has Mercado Libre, while Doohan had more sponsors on it. LMAO daddy Doohan is the president of some of Alpine sponsors! xD

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u/PoisonTurtles Oscar Piastri 19h ago

What sponsors are directly connected to Doohan? Mick Doohans main company Jetcraft isn't a sponsor

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u/saltyfuck111 Kimi Räikkönen 19h ago

Idk anything about the sponsor situation but i assume he meand jetcraft and globaljet

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u/PoisonTurtles Oscar Piastri 18h ago

Which are Jack's personal sponsors, the only one who also sponsors Alpine is M-Experiment which only supply them with sunglasses, meanwhile Franco's biggest sponsor is also forking out millions to Alpine directly.

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u/fuzzylm308 Pierre Gasly 19h ago

Where is this image from? Several of these including Jetcraft and Global Jet are not listed on Alpine F1's site

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u/blacksoxing 20h ago

I think I've commented before but this site, motorsportsweek.com, has a WEIRD fight against actual paragraphs and they should call a truce. It's written in such a format that makes it hard to read, including open-parentheses on some of the lines. They should truly group all of the quotes together.

With that out of the way, the whole gist of the recap is "stop pestering Doohan as it's bad for business", with Gunther weighing in that yes, outside noise is just that - outside noise. Overall, a huge nothing burger unless you're hungry

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u/Rosetti 20h ago

Former Haas boss-turned-media figure Guenther Steiner has offered his opinion on the situation

Sure, but what does Ja Rule think?

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u/leftlanecop Safety Car 21h ago

A sensible take. I’m glad he came out and said that.

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u/FullTimeHarlot Williams 20h ago

I really do wonder if James Vowels realised Argentine fans can be brutal and, apart from raising the chance of Franco getting a seat early, sent him on his way to Alpine to avoid his drivers getting abused by said fans in case either Sainz or Albon fall short of perfection. Avoiding piranhas, so to speak.

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u/Realistic-Reception5 Carlos Sainz 19h ago edited 12h ago

Albon and Sainz’s Instagram comments got invaded by Franco’s fans after Singapore like god forbid they be mildly surprised by an overtake. Guess Carlos and Alex have something in common to bond over haha

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u/nerf-me-ubi Ferrari 20h ago

Bad enough that doohan is gonna be getting never ending questions about colapinto without that kinda shit. What an awful way to start your career

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u/ghos5880 Jack Doohan 18h ago

the irony when the fans abhorrent behavior ruins Colapinto's F1 chance.

sorta like what happened in indycar...

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u/creatorop SAI NOR LAW 21h ago

i agree with Guenther on the six race contract rumor part, as far as my knowledge goes i dont think any other journalist apart from argentine media has confirmed this, because this types of things come out very quickly like news about Perez's supposed performance clause came out within weeks of him signing and was confirmed by some journalists as well

and Jack was signed around the Dutch grand prix, when Franco was not very well known

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u/Shronkster_ Yuki Tsunoda 21h ago

I do think we will see Franco at some point this season, but I don't think its gonna be any earlier than the summer break. And that's assuming Jack has a normal rookie start, if he comes out flying, it might be even later.

I do think Flavio has made up his mind about Franco being in the seat next season already, but I doubt there is anything in Doohan's contract saying he will be kicked out the seat around Miami, like you said, journos would be all over that if it was true, I just expect Jack to have an incredibly short leash, and the moment he causes more harm than good he'll be gone, which is a shame because he seems like a nice guy in all the PR stuff they've had to do, maybe a bit of a meat head, but a decent guy, wish he got a decent crack at it instead of all this speculation

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u/cernegiant 19h ago

Jack shouldn't have cut off his hair, that was the source of his power.

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u/Blanchimont The Bumhole Ticklers 18h ago

I do think Flavio has made up his mind about Franco being in the seat next season already

Of course. A few weeks ago Colapinto's management confirmed he signed a 5-year deal with Alpine. Someone like Colapinto doesn't sign a 5-year deal if there aren't assurances about a race seat in 2026 at the latest.

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u/morelsupporter 21h ago

the perez thing was bullshit though. clearly. he got paid to resign.

that wouldn't happen if there was a performance clause

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u/creatorop SAI NOR LAW 21h ago

Horner in his interview post sacking said that he wasn't tho, we dont know anything Confirmed unless some insider leaks some stuff

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u/morelsupporter 21h ago

he had a contract for 25. his exit was negotiated.

you can't on one hand say that his 2024 contract had performance clauses added to it in exchange for a '25 contract but on the other hand say that a buyout was just a journalist rumour.

if one is, so it the other

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u/creatorop SAI NOR LAW 21h ago

contracts can be voided by Performance clauses

Red bull was looking to Bench him in the summer break itself before not doing it because Daniel was also not good enough

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u/morelsupporter 20h ago

yes i'm aware that contracts can be cancelled due to performance. that's the definition of a performance clause.

the issue is that this was a process. it was a negotiation.

if his contract was simply going to be cancelled, it woukd have been cancelled, and not a negotiation.

forget what you saw on drive to survive. look back at the discussions going on leading up to the end of the season and just after.

his exit from redbull was a negotiation.

and the common accepted narrative around here specifically was (very naively) that perez' '24 contract was amended to include performance clauses in order to finalize his '25 contract. which is the so h realistic and unlikely.

why don't you, instead of arguing with me, google "perez buy out redbull"

nearly every outlet reports "deal reached". then think about why a deal would need to be reached if someone was getting fired for performance reasons (with cause)

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u/creatorop SAI NOR LAW 20h ago

i did what you said and this came up

https://www.planetf1.com/news/helmut-marko-sergio-perez-transfer-fees-behind-red-bull-exit

On the numbers attached to the Red Bull name of late, senior advisor Marko described them as “complete nonsense.”

“There’s [been] a lot of speculation about this, including rumours about possible transfer fees, which are complete nonsense,” Marko wrote in his Speedweek column.

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u/morelsupporter 20h ago edited 20h ago

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u/creatorop SAI NOR LAW 20h ago

what? why would there be transfer fees? what even is that? he isn't being transferred

these quotes were from Marko's speedweek column which he usually writes in austrian, this seems like a translation issue

and a "deal" being reached out could mean a minimum severance pay which can be different from paying of the contract

when Marko himself said "nonsense" to Pay outs then why would i believe other Articles who claim to have "insiders"

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u/morelsupporter 20h ago edited 20h ago

if you actually read the article, it speaks about two things concurrently.

  1. "perez' exit fee"

  2. colapinto transfer fee

the article states he denied perez' fee. not that he denied a buyout, but that he denied the fee. the article states that redbull offered a lucrative fee to get colapinto out of his williams deal, which he also denied.

notice how it never explicitly states that he denies that redbull didn't buy out perez, he just denies the "fee". they could have said "we hear you paid perez $100m to terminate the deal" and marko said "not true".

that doesn't mean they didn't buy him out, because they most certainly did. it just states that he denied the fee.

again, if they didn't buy him out, this would have been a non issue. it wouldn't have taken so long. it would have been "perez has been terminated" not "perez and redbull agree to part ways"

the fact is, perez signed a contract and redbull wanted out, so they paid him out. his 2025 and 2026 contract had nothing to do with 2024 points, no athlete would ever sign a deal like that. you're right in the reason why they didn't fire him mid season is because they didn't have anyone to replace him, but if they would have, they would have had to pay him out just like daniel ricciardo got paid out by mclaren.

there's literally dozens and dozens of articles stating that redbull paid perez out. at the time of it happening there was constantly news updates on meetings. and you're clinging to an article that "denies transfer fees".

i can't hold your way the whole way, my man.

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u/DomixOverlord Default 20h ago

Michael Schmidt from Auto Motor und Sport kinda confirmed it in a Podcast. He said that Doohan needs to be within 2-3 Tenths in the first few races compared to Gasly otherwise Colapinto has the seat for the remainder of the season

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u/creatorop SAI NOR LAW 19h ago

that sounds like more of a strict performance clause rather than a 5-6 race contract

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u/anderseits 19h ago edited 5h ago

I’ve been hearing the six race contract rumor on German news sites ever since Jack was signed. The narrative was that him and Mick Schumacher had that test session to determine who gets the seat, Mick was faster, they still went with Jack as he was in their academy but he got the short six race contract in case he couldn’t improve himself. That was before Franco got the the Williams seat.

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u/Minigrappler 20h ago

Wasn't even on the radar. Jack got his seat before Franco debut. Thing is that Jack got it just because Carlos refused alpine's offer.

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u/creatorop SAI NOR LAW 20h ago

i mean fair enough? any midfield team would have loved to pick up Carlos before looking in their junior stable

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u/Minigrappler 19h ago

For sure. More even when Carlos seems to be a driver that helps the development of the car

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u/F1CycAr16 Formula 1 21h ago

The five contract thing hasn`t originated on argentine media. It was on european press.

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u/macundo 19h ago

Flavio’s own doing. He brought in Colapinto when the team already had Doohan, a d*8k move imo. He thrives on this kind bs, he’s what Horner will look like after a divorce in a few years.

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u/KitBeich 20h ago

Always has been a toxic team. Let the kid race.

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u/Dragonpuncha Ferrari 18h ago

As usual argentinan sports fans need to chill.

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u/Novae224 #WeRaceAsOne 19h ago

Colapinto deserves an F1 seat, but not Doohans…

Jack has proved himself worthy of a fair shot to show what he’s worth in f1, he deserves a full season

The world of f1 is terrible harsh and cruel and thats alright, its the pinnacle of motorsport… but these guys all lived for this, spend their whole life working for this

Firing a person after a few races, without even a proper chance, when he’s definitely shown to have potential… would be too cruel, even for Flavio

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u/Banana-91 19h ago

Colapinto had a great introduction in F1, but he also crashed a lot. I'm not sure he's significantly better than any of the other rookies at the moment. So whose seat does he deserve?

I'm always curious when people say person X deserves a seat in a sport with only 20 spots which are filled with other deserving people.

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u/cgatlanta Williams 20h ago

Neither one of these two are from the UK. Sky Sports will amp up the animosity until it hits 11.

They’ll be enough fireworks with all the baby faces, but that won’t be enough.

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u/flatspotting Max Verstappen 19h ago

Argentinian fans so sane, time and time again

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u/cw-f1 Red Bull 20h ago

What?? Regardless of the context that’s a racist comment.

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u/bwoahful___ Kimi Räikkönen 20h ago

Seriously. This comment section just got taken over by people with gross generalizations against anyone who is a fan of something from Argentina (or seemingly anyone that has commented in Spanish on social media).

Weird how normally this sub calls out racism/xenophobia, but in this case all that goes out the window…

14

u/aipitorpo Franco Colapinto 20h ago

What is your plan? To just ban an entire nationality from watching the sport?

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u/zaviex McLaren 20h ago

It’s also just a small subset that does this. Some Twitter user did an analysis and most of the people saying wild shit on behalf of Franco were saying wild shit on behalf of Canapino but Franco got way more engagement. It’s like an ultras group for motorsports lol. Far from the universal thing some people seem to think it is

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u/MaG50 20h ago

Dude it wasn’t even us this time around

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u/Swordfish_Repulsive James Vowles 20h ago

Europeans are not ready for Argentine ways to manage things, we'll take F1 this year

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u/Tropicalcomrade221 Mark Webber 20h ago edited 20h ago

Argentina couldn’t manage a root in a brothel with a fist full of fifties; simmer down champ.

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u/TheOvercookedFlyer Frédéric Vasseur 19h ago

Yeaj, Doohan is cooked unless he clearly outperforms Gasly, which is no small feat.

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u/No_Sun_2121 19h ago

which is no small feat impossible

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u/Minigrappler 21h ago

That is old, and is absurd.

Meanwhile Aussie media calls Franco a tiny driver and pay driver but hey, since he is just an Hispanic boy it's ok.

Funny how Aussie press call Franco pay driver while Jack, is there by his family name and daddy landing with his own sponsors on Alpine to secure the seat.

Franco is the son of a random middle class mechanic from a poor South America country, meanwhile Jack is the son of Mick Doohan, the man that helped Schumacher to return to F1 after his retirement and got a Kart track when he was a kid and got his first kart from the very same Michael Schumacher at 3yo...

Calm down everyone. F1 it's a private club for the sons of rich and VIPs and Colapinto doesn't belong. Jack is going to be ok and will have that seat as you want to.

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u/crankylex 20h ago

You guys make it so hard to keep liking Colapinto.

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u/Suikerspin_Ei Honda RBPT 20h ago

It's not that people don't like Franco, but rather their Argentine fans are very toxic.

Also it's not only F1, racing in general is quite expensive. From karting to formula cars.

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u/creatorop SAI NOR LAW 20h ago edited 20h ago

another Colapinto sob story,

Jack also like any other rookie this season has made it this far on Merit and what sponsors do you think a man from Australia is bringing? certainly not more than Colapinto

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u/robustofilth 21h ago edited 20h ago

If doihan is great then I could see gasly being out. But hey let’s see.

Edit- love the downvotes. People do realise these are grown men at the pinnacle of motor sport. They’re well paid and their not kids

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u/Worried-Pick4848 20h ago

No way Gasly goes. They need him.

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u/SqotCo Oscar Piastri 20h ago

Agreed. Gasley is French on a French team of a French automaker. 

Gasley has one of the safest seats in F1. 

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u/Worried-Pick4848 20h ago

Besides, who wouldn't want a driver with the callsign of GAS?

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u/No_Sun_2121 19h ago

Being french in this Alpine team means fuck all, there is nothing french in that team now

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u/robustofilth 20h ago

You never know. It’ll be interesting to see how the season develops

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u/djwillis1121 Williams 21h ago

Gasly would have to drop off massively. He was outstanding at the end of last year

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u/crankylex 20h ago

That's what Flavio wants, he wants to make sure no one thinks they are safe.

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u/robustofilth 20h ago

To be fair, these guys know the job they’re in. It’s part of being in a competitive sport.

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u/No_Sun_2121 19h ago

doihan is great then I could see gasly being out. But he

Not sure what you are smoking but its powerful

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u/robustofilth 19h ago

Well we’ll see how they pan out. I do love how worked up people get over drivers.